#145 stat → stands

Quick Summary

The Latin root stat and its variant stit mean “stand.” This Latin root is the word origin of a large number of English vocabulary words, including state, statue, constitution and superstition. The root stat is easily recalled via the word stationary or “standing” still, whereas stit can be recalled via institute, to make something like an organization “stand” by creating it.

Ingredient Memlet: substitute

A substitute is a person that “stands in place of” another person, or “stands under,” that is, provides “support” while that other person is absent.

“Stat” Stands at the Ready!

The Latin root stat and variant stit mean “stand.” Today we will put you in a state of readiness, enabling you to “stand” prepared when the roots stat and stit make an appearance!

What is your station in life, that is, where do you “stand?” Is your status or “standing” in society high, low, or in the middle? Is your physical stature such that you “stand” tall above others? Is your societal “standing” so high that one day a statue, or image that “stands” erect, will be made so that others can remember that you once “stood” so tall? Imagine such a permanent statement of how things “stand” for you!

What is your current state of health, that is, where does it “stand?” Are you so healthy that you are ecstatic, “standing” outside of normal feelings so as to be very happy? Or are you forced to remain stationary, unable to move but only “stand” still? If your health is not so good, hopefully a doctor is not too distant or “standing” far away to take care of you!

A variant of the root stat is stit, formed so because a word with stit is sometimes easier to say than a word with stat. For instance, it is much easier to say “constitution” than “constatution,” and better to say “superstition” than “superstation”! Speaking of the former, a person’s constitution is how the well-being of her body “stands,” that is, how well her immune system keeps her healthy. A nation’s constitution, such as the US Constitution, is the setting forth of how a nation will “stand” as to its laws and structure of its government. A nation’s constitution helps to keep the nation and its people from becoming destitute, or “standing” from being in good shape, including financially. And if indeed something bad does happen, the written constitution hopefully provides restitution so that the nation or individual can “stand” strong again. Superstition is a “standing” above the belief in normal, everyday, tangible things, and instead having a belief in the reality of supernatural powers, not the basis of a good government.

Now that we have instituted the roots stat and stit as part of your roots knowledge, you will no longer misstate the meanings of words with those roots in them!

station: one’s “standing” or place where one “stands”

status: one’s “standing” socially

stature: how tall one “stands,” or one’s societal “standing”

statue: a “standing” image

statement: saying how something “stands”

state: where something “stands”

ecstatic: a “standing” outside of normal feelings

stationary: a “standing” still

distant: a “standing” far from

constitution: condition of how something “stands” together

constitution: a document that delineates how a nation will “stand” as to its structure and laws